Ten Fingers and Ten Toes
by CatBru
Summary: Er... Thanks to StoneCold for pointing out my folly, aka the Jumbled One Paragraph Syndrome. Its fixed now. Anyhoo, this is supposedly set during the as of yet unaired miniseries. Lots of Fluffyness. Why, you ask? BECAUSE I LIKE MY FLUFFf


Ten Fingers and Ten Toes  
  
Author's Notes: This is in response to CrystalMoon's Fic Challenge - New Scifi Mag was looking at that new picture from the Scifi Magazine. Go here to see what I'm talking about, but be warned, it's potentially a spoiler even though it's a promo I started wondering, what if that was a scene from the show? Why would J&A be in that particular pose with those expressions on their faces? Aeryn looks rather fierce but John is kind of smirking. At least it seems that way to me. And why is Aeryn wearing her old clothes? Why hasn't she bought some new ones that fit? Etc.  
  
So my challenge is for people to write a fic incorporating a scene that would explain that picture. Is anyone up for it?  
  
I'm up for it!  
  
I FINALLY finished something that was Farscape related! Yes, this is my first Farscape fanfic. So many started and failed attempts, and this piece took all of three hours to actually write, not including typing time. Hope this is what you're looking for, CrystalMoon!  
  
Time: After the fourth season's finale, presumably during the show's as of yet unaired mini-series.  
  
Rating: Er... PG?  
  
Pairing: John/Aeryn. FLUFFY!!! LOTS OF FLUFFY!!! You are warned! You no like J/A Fluffiness, run away now while you still can!  
  
Distribution: Heck you want it, all you gotta do is let me know when and where! Disclaimer: I don't own 'em! If i did, there would never have been need for a mini-series! They woulda gone on forever and ever! HAHAHA!!  
  
Okay, here's the story...  
  
"Aw hell Baby, did you hafta shoot that Tech?" John Crichton asked for the twentieth time as he led his fiancé down the corridor of the nearly deserted Command Carrier, one hand curled around her hip, the other holding Winonna at the ready.   
  
Aeryn stormed along, fury and hormones fueling her speed. Actually, she did more waddling than storming, and her current speed, while swifter than she normally ambled along at these days, was no faster than a limping Hynerian. Her own pulse pistol was clenched tightly in her fist, knuckles white and fingers twitching. "I didn't like that look in his eyes, John." Her voice, normally cool and collected, was now thick and shook with unshed tears. "I didn't like what he said about the test results, about our child being an abomination!"   
  
Sighing, John squeezed her hip gently. The tech that had been assigned to perform the medical examination had not been discreet in his views of Sebacean-alien crossbreeding and what should be done with the resulting demon spawns. His comments had rankled Crichton, and he had been microts away from blasting the bastard to pieces himself when Aeryn had beat him to it, leaving a nasty though unfatal blast wound in the tech's stomach. "I know, Honey. Still, I think we could have at least waited until he was able to give you those hormone shots." As soon as the words left his mouth, he bit his lip and cursed at his stupidity.   
  
Aeryn halted in her tracks, causing the human to trip over himself to prevent barreling over the pregnant Sebacean. "There is nothing wrong with my hormone levels!" She sharply jabbed his shoulder with the blunt muzzle of the pistol to stress her point, and John was thankful that her fingers were curled around the hand grip and no where near the trigger. "I would have shot that fekik even if I weren't ballooning out like a Nebari tregot with your child!"   
  
John gently steered her pistol away with the stock of his own weapon. "I believe you, Baby. Truth be told, I was about ready to shoot the bastard myself." Bringing up his free hand, he reassuringly rubbed her shoulder, bare except for the thin strap of the black camisole she wore. She had been wearing one of his black shirts, clothing being limited as they were for a pregnant Sebacean on board a renegade leviathan.   
  
There had been little time to shop for maternity clothes as of late, and they'd put it off in the past every time they'd gone planet-side, worried that someone would recognize them and report their presence to the Scarrans or Peacekeepers. The shirt had been left behind, having been removed so the Tech would have better access to her tummy, and in his rush to delete the file from the Peacekeeper systems (you had no idea who would try to use some bit of that information against him in the future) and retrieve the PKG Chip, they'd left the piece of clothing behind.   
  
Her lower lip quivered at his words and she gave him an adoring smile as her eyes filled with tears. "You were?"   
  
"Yeah Aeryn, I was." He caught the tear that fell down her cheek with the pad of his thumb before kissing her forehead. For the past monen, her hormones had been wreaking havoc on her emotions, each mood swing unpredictable. Pregnant Sebaceans usually didn't suffer so violently from them, or so he'd been told by a very irate Aeryn a couple Solar Days after they had started up. John supposed that it was the mixed DNA that caused this, his human genes causing her volatile nature. "Now let's get out of here before they find that loser, yeah? I do not wanna be around when he wakes up with a killer of a stomach ache."   
  
Aeryn nodded, sniffling as she allowed him to once again guide her down the corridor. The ship was an exact duplicate of all the previous Command Carriers she'd been on, nd having grown up on one she still knew the layout almost better than she knew Moya's more comforting maze of hallways, and she led them down the path to the transport hangar that currently housed their small vessel.   
  
This Command Carrier was what remained of Captain Braca's people. Half the vessel had been recently rendered uninhabitable by the endless barrage of Scarran Stryker assaults, and the other half was barely holding itself together by the bulkheads.   
  
It had been sheer luck that Moya had happened on the battle when she did. The great ship had Starburst in, immediately having Scarrans open fire on her. D'Argo had taken out Lo'La and destroyed several of the Strykers before a wormhole, one John had barely sensed when they had arrived, opened and swallowed many of the remaining Scarran vessels. Those that were left tucked tail and ran.   
  
In return for their impromptu assistance, Captain Braca offered them the use of their remaining resources to repair any damage Moya or the crew had endured during the battle. At first, Crichton had been against the idea of even stepping foot on the vessel. He and the ship's captain weren't on the best of terms, and he'd sensed a trap.   
  
However, D'Argo was certain they'd be able to find the location of a diagnosian in the immediate area with the expertise to fix Chiana's diminished sight, which had yet to return since Pilot closed the wormhole leading to Earth. As with Aeryn's clothing issue, they'd had no time to search for the alien doctor. The data had been simple to locate in the ship's systems, and D'Argo immediately flew off with Chiana, promising to rendezvous with Moya within a couple weekens.   
  
Together they decided that they'd use the time for Aeryn to get a pre-natal exam. Since the medic had been killed in the attack, an operations tech had been assigned from waste removal to perform the procedure. The Sebacean had managed to keep his mouth shut until the data was loading into a PK Chip, when he then decided to take a stand on his alien soap box, voicing his disgust at the evils of a half-breed child. Aeryn had listened to him calmly until she removed her pistol from its belt, neither John or the Tech having time to react.   
  
After Aeryn had made her shot, John had snatched up the chip and hastily wiped any evidence of the exam from the ship's systems before escorting the fuming woman from the medical bay. He'd tucked the chip in one of his pockets, and barring it falling through some unknown hole--which knowing his luck, would and should happen--they would view the data when back aboard Moya.   
  
Aeryn led them around a corner, and both jumped back, leveling their weapons at the first being they'd seen since leaving the medical bay. Instinctually, John had guided Aeryn to him, hand resting possessively on her hip. Had it not been for the fact that his arm had already been around her waist, he would have pulled her behind him. Of course, she would have peeled all the skin from his body with a Luxan Tokkar knife and then sewn it back on inside out and backwards with a rusty needle. Still, that was a preferable fate than her or the baby getting shot.  
  
When he recognized the would-be attacker, he loosened his grip on Aeryn and his pistol, but still kept aim. Stark stood before them, gazing sightlessly passed them with his eye. John rolled his eyes. "Stark, what the frell are you doing here?" A few microts later, he lowered his pistol. Aeryn kept hers aimed for a moment longer before following suit. Since Stark had returned to the ship, she'd been unusually wary. When John had asked her about it one morning, she simply said that things had gotten uncomfortable between them before he'd left Talyn.  
  
Finally noticing them, Stark cocked his head to one side before blurting out. "Gone too long. Came to see what was going wrong."  
  
"Alright." The astronaught supposed that was as good an explanation as he was going to get from the Stykera. "Thanks for the concern, dude."  
  
They made it the rest of the way to the transport bay without running into anyone else. John began the start-up sequence of one of Moya's transport pods as Stark did the same in his. Crichton wanted off this Godforsaken wreck of a vessel and Aeryn safely back aboard Moya. Chances of pursuit were minimal, the Peacekeeper she'd shot had been a low-ranking Tech who would undoubtedly receive corrective actions for his sheer stupidity alone once he'd explained the reasons for his injuries and the loss of the data of their child.  
  
Pilot analyzed the data on the chip, his alien face softened by a smile that reminded John of a small child. "The gestation cycle appears to be two-thirds of the way complete, if not a little more." He moved his eyes from human to Sebacean, soft voice filling with pride for the couple. "Chemical balances are stable. While little is known of the developmental stage of human pregnancies, the fetus appears to be doing exceptionally well at this stage."  
  
John gently rubbed Aeryn's shoulders at Pilot's words. "So the kid has ten fingers, ten toes, no tail. The whole nine yards?"  
  
The statement earned him an uncomprehending look from Pilot. "The baby is developing normally and has all the appendages expected at this stage. In fact-" He paused, tilting his head to one side. "Captain D'Argo is contacting us." Moving his arms, Pilot opened the comms channel.  
  
"Pilot. John. Can any of you hear me?" The Luxan's voice garbled over the airway, slowly gaing strength.  
  
"Yo D, we hear you. You and Pip get everything settled okay?" John exchanged glances with Aeryn, waiting for the news.  
  
"The diagnosian was very helpful. Chiana can't wait to see you guys." The relief was evident in his voice, and both John and Aeryn smiled.  
  
"Great! Tell her we can't wait for her to see us."  
  
"Already done. We'll be aboard Moya within the arn." D'Argo cut off communications, presumabaly to have more time with the Nebari.  
  
"That's great, now Chi can finally see how big you've gotten." John winced, immediatley aware of how that could be taken. To quickly cover his eema, he hurridly added, "Of course now she can see when I'm making faces at her.  
  
Fortunatley, she was at a smooth curve on her emotional roller coaster and let the first comment slide. Nudging his ribs playfully, she turned her head to smile at him. "Be nice, John!"  
  
Returning her smile, he nipped at the edge of her nose with dull teeth. "I don't do nice."  
  
"Commander, Aeryn," At Pilot's voice, the two turned their attentions towards him. "I was wondering if you would like to see your child."  
  
Briefly, his mind flashed past the Royal Planet that housed a pregnant statue and a small child that voiced her love for him. Shaking it off, he glanced at Aeryn curiously. "See our child? How?"  
  
"The Peacekeepers did a visual scan as well as the tests. It is here if you wish to see it."  
  
He kept his eyes on Aeryn, raising his eyebrows in question. She bit her lip from indecision before slowly nodding. "Yeah?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Grinning widley now, he turned to Pilot. "Alright big guy, show us."  
  
Moving his arms across the complex settings on the console, he brought up a vivid, realistic hologram of the developing child. It floated, rotating mid-air. His breath caught in the back of his throat, and he could hear the hitch in hers.  
  
It looked more like a newborn than the diagrams he'd seen of devoloping humans in health class. It was curled up in itself, floating serenly inside its mother. As they watched, the child jostled about, kicking tiny legs against the uterine wall. John watched in awe as he counted ten fingers and ten toes.  
  
He moved his hands to Aeryn's stomach. Faint flutterings followed by a healthy kick announced that his precense was known. It was a Crichton kick, a Sun kick.  
  
John turned to nuzzle her cheek and she splayed her hands over his, guiding them to the more active movements, and he whispered to her in a thick voice.  
  
"Look Baby, its out little girl."  
  
-End  
  
Began: Thursday June 3, 2004 10:15 PM  
  
Ended: Friday June 4, 2004 1:05 AM 


End file.
